Aiming at "historical inquiry more fully theorized ... than has commonly been the case in the New Historicism," Manley (Yale), author of the historical exploration Convention, 1500-1750 (CH, Dec'80), here traces relations between literature and the growth of London from feudal enclave to commercial metropolis between 1450 and 1700. The topic is a familiar one, and the author demonstrates command of vast scholarship, old and new, on three centuries of British social, political, and legal history. In a particularly fine section, he uses Georg Simmel to show how in the 17th century urban growth produced new kinds of social interaction and states of mind--"urbanity," characterized by "hyperintellection" and "discrimination"--that were visible in and furthered by a host of convivial and conversational literary forms. What might have been a more exciting story is slowed by Manley's generalizations and resolutely theoretical vocabulary ("Facts are adduced insofar as they are elements of structure and symptoms of change," he says early on); but his book, documented with superbly chosen literary examples, should become important for advanced students of literary history. D. L. Patey; Smith College